


Before

by NeverAware



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Police, Pre-Slash, background info, labs, robberies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverAware/pseuds/NeverAware
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While doing a routine robbery, Derek unintentionally runs into a familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before

**Author's Note:**

> I'm giving this series an overhaul, so hopefully I'll have something up soon. I do apologize that it's taken so long to get stuff done. College is a necessary evil right now that rules my life. Review!

Derek had seen more break-ins in New York than any other crime. Revengeful exes, pranks gone wrong, roommates who had gotten into arguments over rent, insurance scams, or just ordinary people getting the wrong end of the stick. This one seemed like a standard break in; signs of forced entry, the place had been ransacked, even when there was no evidence of valuables being taken. You wouldn't notice much though, with this mess, Derek sighed lightly. It was shaping to be a long night of processing.

"Neighbor was the one to call it in, said he heard a disturbance. Said it sounded like glass shattering," Jace said as he stepped into the apartment. "Geez, this place is a mess. Any idea if something is missing?"

"No, too much disturbance. The owner will need to help us figure out if anything was taken," Derek said as he stepped around a tipped over lamp and shade. He stopped next to the overturned table to pull out the smashed picture frame and froze. The background and people in the frame were all too familiar. "Jesus Christ. Have you been able to contact the owner of the apartment?"

"What's up? Nah, the only number that the supe has is the home phone. And it's buried underneath all of this...stuff," Jace maneuvered over to stand behind Derek to look at the photo. It didn't illustrate much except for an older man, in uniform, and a couple of kids hugging on the field of a school. 

"What's the name on this apartment lease," Derek practical growled; agitated and worried that they had stepped into something deeper than a simple robbery after all. 

"Something St...Stil...stilinski, maybe. Derek, man, do you know who lives in this apartment?"

"Hopefully, it isn't who I think it is. And if it is than I don't want to tell his father that something happened to him," Derek's eyebrows were furrowed, clearly worried or thinking of unseen consequences.

"Alright since this place is a dead end, let's head back and see if we can find whoever lives in this apartment," Jace suggested to redirect the irritable werewolf.

 

*

 

"Yo Derek, hey."

"Laura gotta call you back...yes...I love you bye."

"So we ran those prints and did a background on Stilinski and you won't believe what we found." Derek seemed unimpressed with Jace's enthusiasm about his big reveal. "He's in the system already, but not with a conviction history. Instead, he's been hired onto a residency here in NY to finish out his Medical Examiner's license. He's literally been a block away this entire time."

"Alright, Jace stay here and see if anything else pans out. I'll go and talk to him, see why no one has knowledge or contact information on him."

"Hmm, k. Have fun."

The coroner's office was a dark and cold place, not somewhere Derek would of thought to find Stiles when they were growing up. He always seemed so bright and carefree when Derek stopped by home after work to find him and Scott hanging out with the rest of the Hales. But Derek hadn't really known Stiles back then and with a 5 year age gap between them it hadn't made it any easier to get to know the boy. He was closer to Cora's age than his own. And before Scott had been bitten during their freshman year of school, both boys hadn't even registered as people he knew, just a face that looked familiar from the sheriff's office.

"I'm look for Stilinski," the receptionist looked terrified of Derek: his mouth and eyebrows were compressed and coupled with his leather screamed pissed off and murder. 

"Uh..he...uh...he's in the lab...towards the back...right side," she practically whimpered from behind the desk, as far away as the the chair would allow without moving. Derek moved off from the desk with one last look at the flinching receptionist. He snorted as her jackrabbit heart rate slowed down the further away he got; one would think that she would be used to werewolves by now. Jules, one of the alphas in the city, worked here with several of her betas. 

* 

Stiles hummed tunelessly as he worked his way around the lab, becoming an M.E had sounded fun, even with the amount of work one had to put into it. Studying diseases and tissue samples to help determine a cause of death for two years was not. It was rather boring. Not to mention that his coworkers decided that now would be a good time to get a late night snack and leave him mostly alone. Stiles did not do well when bored and alone, seeing the amount of pranks and detentions he got in high school. He felt like he would explode if nothing happened soon. Of course, that’s when he realized that someone was standing in the doorway. The sudden jerk away from the doorway and startled high pitched yelp, he would maintained that it wasn’t a squeal until he died, when he turned around and spotted a shadow lurking there didn’t leave a good impression on anyone. Not even himself. 

“The universe is just played me,” he gasped clutching his chest where his heart wanted to burst out. “Like, not literally, even though that would be so cool. A sentient being in control, or at least playing pranks on people, you know kinda like Deadpool, just popping back up from the dead to say ‘Boo!’. Although that would be so creepy, like what happens when you want a little ‘me-time’ and suddenly the bed collapses or the shower breaks and the universe is like ‘HA!’. That would be so embarrassing. You’d die that’s how embarrassing it would be. You’d be all red and pathetic looking when you were found and they’d be like we got another one. Croaked from embarrassment overload. That-”

“Stiles! Just stop talking.” Stiles’ snapped his mouth shut after gaping at the shadow in the doorway. No one ever told him to shut up, well not recently anyway.

“who...wha...what the hell, man. You don’t get to tell me to shut up when you didn’t even knock and then scared the crap out of me!” Stiles didn’t get an answer other than a put-upon sigh that sounded like the guy either wanted to strangle Stiles or knock his head against the wall, but it had the unintended effect of getting him to step out of the shadowy doorway. A strangled squeak slipped out of Stiles’ mouth,” Derek! You ass!” Even without seeing Hale since his late teens, the broody look and bushy eyebrows were unmistakable. No one would ever know, or could prove, the amount of time that he had spent staring at Derek whenever he could, or you know stalking him online. Which was a lot less than most people would think, not that he hadn’t tried to find more time.

“What’s up, oh grumpy one? Surely, you didn’t just to come see me this late at night. Is it a case? Oh tests results, I guess, although everyone else is out at the moment. I mean I probably could get someone or maybe even Jules…”

“Stiles. Just stop. I’m here looking for you actually, there’s some business that we need to discuss. Is there a time that better than now? A break? Or when you get off shift? ” Derek’s mouth had tightened with the stress of being around Stiles’ never ending brain to mouth vomit. He’d forgotten how much it grated on his ears. 

“uh...I get off in an hour, I guess if you want to wait at the little 24- hour coffee shop down the street,” Stiles murmured disturbed and more than a little confused, as Derek spun and walked away. 

*

The little café wasn't anything special. A little shop sandwiched between office buildings with wooden tables, booths, and benches along the sidewalk, but it was open all night. And that was the best thing in Stiles’ mind. Of course, Derek being the shadow creeper he was had chosen the darkest area to sit inside the store. A bench on the far wall, (which was cast in shadows) with the wall filled with articles and photos of events that had happened near and around the building. An eerie timeline of sorts and it was downright creepy.

After Stiles had collect his coffee, inordinately sweet with twice the normal amount of cream and espresso in it, he paused to observe the long time officer. He had no doubt that Derek knew he was there, even if his slumped posture said otherwise. Derek’s eyes were cast in deep shadows under furrowed brows that lengthened the press of full lips and sharp cheekbones. While his hands were clasped loosely around a white coffee cup between his knee, his shoulder were curved, as though he wished to hide from whatever caused the lines that framed his mouth and eyes. Stiles’ didn’t prevent the little tug of sympathy in his heart that went out to the man. It was clear that whatever news they had to discuss was something that would cause someone pain, even if it wasn’t clear who.

His steps were hesitant and laced with uncertainty as he crossed to stand next to Derek. He wanted to walk away and leave; to prevent anymore heartbreak or pain from coming his way. He’d run to New York to get away from the attacks, the arguments with Scott. He’d felt that he had nothing left to stay for. Why would now be any different? But he didn’t leave Derek sitting there, instead Stiles took a breath and sat.

He could handle whatever came his way, like before, before the heartbreak, before the attack, before the argument, before he ran across the country, when he was still an idiot teenage who believed he could handle the world. That everything was still fair. And the people he trusted would never hurt him.

“What did you need,” Stiles asked as he released the breath in a long exhale and slumped against the wall. He wouldn't run.

"We got a call about a disturbance earlier. Neighbors didn't know who lived there and the supe only had the home phone. I had to call home to find out if you were in town after I was a picture of you. Then we had to track you down through your records here in the city, when no one had any idea. How long have you been in New York? Hell, I wouldn't of known you were even on the east coast. Laura hadn’t even known that you'd moved. No one’s seen or heard from you in months. She said that your dad and Scott aren't talking. You could of been hurt or dying and no one would of known." Derek sounded distressed by the possibility; hunching his shoulders in even more. 

“How bad?” The cringe is was evident in his voice as well as his body. A lifetime of bad ideas and getting called on it by his dad was trying to break through. Any type of evasion hadn’t worked then and it wouldn’t work on Derek now.

“Nothing we could find to say that anything had been stolen, but it’s a mess so…”

“You can’t decide without my help.” Stiles couldn’t help the exhausted sigh.

“Yeah,” Derek’s voice was soft and hesitant, sensing his exhaustion that came from too long hours of work and emotional turmoil. “What happened?”

“There was an attack, a rogue omega came through a couple days after graduation. It was a routine job but Scott freaked when it got to close and we had... words, I guess. I left and came here. Jules is an awesome boss and her pack is equally cool. And she has an emissary who can train me without all the secrets,” the like Deaton went unsaid but Derek heard it all to clear. “And I like the work, even if it’s a little boring, and I like New York.” Derek could tell that he wasn’t going to get anymore out of Stiles and the longer they took to talk at the coffee shop, the longer it would take to help Stiles’ straighten out his apartment. 

“Anyone who would care that you’re in New York? Significant other? Exes? Coworker?” 

“Not really, I mean no one really knows that I’m here. I didn’t have time for a steady relationship until I moved. You know with school and trying to get my residencies done. And most people don’t really connect with me you know, I’m kinda awkward and spazzy and I talk way too much on a normal day,” the words were true by werewolf standards, even if Derek didn’t believe them himself, Stiles’ heartbeat hadn’t skipped. 

“Thanks. Do you need help or anything before we go?”

“Nah, I moved in by myself and I be able to clean by myself. Thanks though, it was nice to see you again. We should talk again, but without all the gloomy stuff in the way.” Stiles’ gave Derek a slight smile, that he had trouble returning, before standing and brushing off his pants. Almost spilling his leftover coffee in the process. He shot Derek an embarrassed smile and left.   
Only than did Derek realize that he hadn’t gotten Stiles’ phone number or given him a card, so that Stiles’ could get in contact with him if there he needed to. At least now he had an invitation to stop, he mused. After all cleaning up a trashed apartment was hard work, it would call for dinner or lunch break and Derek had every intention about being one.

**Author's Note:**

> Rate, review, give feedback


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